Sunday, April 21, 2013

After getting ass-whupped by the Orioles in Saturday's doubleheader, stretching the loss streak to six, the Dodgers looked like they were out of any sort of mettle and were ready to phone in the final 145 games of this season. The Orioles jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first off of Stephen Fife, an emergency call-up in place of Chad Billingsley, who hit the DL (with an elbow pain issue that probably should have been resolved with surgery over the off-season, instead of nutpunching us now...but that's another gripe for another day).

The Dodgers eked out a single run in a three-walk third inning, then watched Adam Jones promptly rope one to left center in the bottom of the inning. Still down by three runs.

And here's where things got crazy (at least, for the Dodgers). The Dodgers, averaging fewer than three runs per game, erupted for four runs in the fifth (Mark Ellis, two-run RBI single to center with the bases loaded; Adrian Gonzalez, double to left scoring Carl Crawford; Matt Kemp, single to left scoring Mellis). The Dodgers then went on to extend their 5-4 lead with a RBI single in the seventh from AJ Ellis, and a run in the ninth from a Jerry Hairston sacrifice fly.

Credit Mattingly for finally putting Gonzalez in the three spot, switched with Kemp. That move was compensated however by Donnie pulling Fife with 4.2 IP, denying Fife his first major league victory (the Dodgers were up 5-4 at the time).

A come-from-behind victory? An end to the six-game nightmare? A shot at gaining on that six-game deficit in the NL West (hey, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves; Rox lead the Snakes 3-0 through three, and the Giants are up on the Padres by the same score in the fourth). But hey, a salvaged win @ Camden Yards, in front of SoSG Dusty Baker? I'll take it.

(PS. Lakers (down nine in the fourth quarter), you could stand to take a lesson from these Dodgers today.)

Excellent day at the Yard. Sorry couldn't check in much from there, but my phone was low on battery. Great Dodger fan turnout today, and the Os fans I talked to were all really cool. Ended up on a bar afterward (shocker!) talking with many fans, of both the Baltimore and Dodger variety. Good times. Glad I could coax along a nice W for us.